Ethical Reflections on the Preservation of Fertility in Healthy Women

The freezing of unfertilised oocytes ("egg freezing") is an assisted reproduction technique that allows eggs to be available for fertilisation, even after female fertility has declined in later years. Cryopreserved, unfertilised oocytes offer women new possibilities of planning their lives and timing motherhood. Women are now able to get pregnant in later stages of life with their own gametes. Because uterine function does not necessarily undergo an age-related decline, postmenopausal pregnancies with one's own genetic germ cells has become a realistic option. This will have a great impact, even in Germany. Until now, postmenopausal pregnancies have been illegal because they depend on egg donation, which is prohibited in Germany. However, due to the fact that creating one's own fertility reserve is allowed in Germany, the phenomenon of late-stage pregnancies may become a widespread practice in family planning. These developments will challenge the work of gynecologists and fertility doctors because, presumably, women will soon start asking them about new possibilities and developments in egg freezing. Fertility clinics in the United States are already giving an indication of how this market may develop. What is needed right now is an ethical reflection in order to find the right way of handling of these challenges. Setting an arbitrary age limit for using one's own fertility reserves will not suffice because biological and chronological age may often be mutually exclusive. Gynecologists and ethicists should therefore engage in a process of ethical reflection as soon as possible.